The National Debate Tournament

Abstract

The goals of NDT have remained fairly constant during past fifty years. The Charter of National Debate Tournament indicates that NDT is committed to the growth of programs of excellence in forensics education in institutions of higher education in United States, to encouraging opportunity for quality debate for students of all institutions of higher education, to maximizing number and geographic representation of participating schools, to maximizing competitive quality of participating schools, and to conducting a tournament consistent with educational objectives of intercollegiate forensics (Charter 1). First and foremost among those goals is that that NDT is designed to encourage opportunities for student participation in intercollegiate debate. Thus, any degree-seeking undergraduate student meeting AFA and NDT eligibility requirements may participate in NDT-style debate and attempt to qualify to attend National Debate Tournament. Students qualifying for NDT are thus enrolled in both public and private, and two- and four-year, institutions of higher education. NDT attempts to encourage a quality experience for those students participating in NDT-style debate. Students may thus qualify to attend tournament through three separate processes. The first qualification process is first-round at-large, where sixteen two-person teams are invited by National Committee to attend NDT based on their competitive success during an academic year. The second qualification process is through various districts or regions. Each geographic region receives a number of qualification slots determined by participation in debate by schools in that region during that academic year. Districts may then award those slots to individual teams based on results of a district tournament or by other means, such as a district ranking process. The third qualification process is second-round at-large, where NDT Committee invites up to sixteen teams to attend NDT, again based on their competitive success during academic year. The various qualification processes seek to guarantee that tournament features best teams in NDT-style debate competing for national championship. Third, NDT seeks to be a tournament grounded in sound educational objectives. Thus, National Debate Tournament Committee continually reviews tournament rules and procedures to assure that tournament fosters sound competitive and educational practices. One of most significant changes for 1996-1997 competition season is decision to debate used by Cross Examination Debate Association. The NDT Committee decided to use joint topic in hopes of providing more local and regional travel opportunities during season, and also to encourage more crossover between NDT and CEDA organizations. The NDT community believes there are several benefits to participation in NDT-style debate. Among those are an increase in student confidence and speaking ability, significant improvement in student critical thinking and analytical skills, demonstrated progress in student information processing competence, and an expansion of student organizational proficiency. …